START TO FINISH VICTORY BY ISN’T SHE LOVELY IN THE MYSORE 1000 GUINEAS, GR. 3

She had the credentials to win. At level weight Isn’t She Lovely (Excellent Art-In The Spotlight) was 1½ lengths behind Punjabi Girl in the Fillies Championship Stakes in Bangalore and ¾ lengths behind Realmsoffantasy who recently won the Deccan Fillies Championship Stakes. She lost out to Peluche in the Srikantadatta Narasimharaajawadiyar Memorial Million in her prep race for the Classics but made good in the first Classic of the season.
The S Padmanabhan-trained Isn’t She Lovely was smartly off and taken directly to the rails and the lead by jockey A Sandesh who seemed determined to make it a start to finish mission over the mile trip. Play Safe and Strong Storm were on her outside. Into The Groove, Venus Bay and Shesmyscript followed with Punjabi Girl, Sakura and Mea Culpa the back markers. She gradually increased her lead while the front runners started falling back and the back markers making headway. Isn’t She Lovely maintained her lead well into the straight with the rest of the field spreading out. At the 300 m marker she started drifting out as Shesmyscript started inching forward with Y S Srinath astride Sakura in full earnest, prodding his ward to take a straight course. Shesmyscript gained a lot of ground to shorten the lead. Srinath gave up the use of the whip on his ward and his decision to use hands and heels worked miracles as Sakura found a new gear, and within a few strides was threateningly close yet unable to bridge the winning gap of one length that separated him from Isn’t She Lovely at the wire. A nose behind in third was Shesmyscript and Mea Culpa finish 2 ¾ length away in fourth.
This is her third win from five starts and while it appeared that she was tiring out at the end of the race one wonders whether her dam the multi-Classic winner In The Spotlight will have infused sufficient stamina into this progeny to see her prevail over distances other than which she has been successful in.